Samenvatting

National thematic projects and local authorities aim to improve shelter and transport facilities for mentally disordered non-offenders. A pilot project in the south-western part of the Netherlands investigated the efficiency of psychiatric expertise in the triage process of the police emergency control room.
To evaluate incoming emergency telephone calls in terms of the type of mentally disordered behavior, the sort and degree of dangerousness, and the urgency and type of response required.
Between November 2016 and January 2017 social psychiatric nurses did weekend shifts on the emergency control room. Incoming telephone calls concerning public nuisance or disordered behavior were administered using the triage tool developed by the Dutch Association of Mental Health and Addiction Care. Nurses had access to regional information systems and were explicitly allowed to follow up on cases where continuity of care was an issue.
A total of 155 calls were evaluated producing a representative image of calls concerning mentally disordered behaviour. Results show that this type of emergency calls is not overly frequent, in many cases not extremely urgent (response time target >1 hour: 67%), and about 65% could be followed up by the general practice centre or specialised (psychiatric) healthcare services. More than half (55%) of the emergency calls involved people previously in contact with psychiatric services. Most common types of danger were public disorder (28%) and suicide risk (21%). However, in 29% of cases type of danger was unclear and 14-20% of the triage tool was inconclusive.
Triage by mental health specialists at the police emergency control room is not efficient because many cases are not very urgent and information quality is often too low to preclude street-triage. Yet screening and follow up of mentally disturbed persons can be improved by close collaboration between control room and psychiatric services.